The commit the agent cannot stamp
One loop for whatever coding agent is driving, with git refusing a commit that has no fresh stamp, and the step names on the post set next to the longer list in the readme.
- Category
- Developer tools
- Who it is for
- A developer whose agent already claims the work is verified.
- Possible model
- Open source
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Inspired by
- norma · norma
- Original launch
- Watch the launch · Oct 9, 2026
Difficulty is an editorial estimate of technical and operational complexity, not a score.
Startup idea analysis by Startup Ideas. Last reviewed Oct 9, 2026. How we read a launch.
The startup idea
Juanca posted norma on October 9. One way of working for AI-built projects, the same whichever agent is driving, enforced by git. Open source. The thread says the loop is orient, spec, plan, implement, verify, review, document, deliver. It stops three times: the spec, the task list, and delivery. Review is a fresh session, ideally a different model, that assumes the work is wrong. Every finding has a file, a line, the input that triggers it, and a verdict: safe to commit or not. The pre-commit hook refuses a commit without a fresh stamp. A skipped test, an eslint-disable, or fewer assertions is flagged for a person. Sixteen stack profiles. POSIX sh, zero dependencies, MIT. brew install jcarlosrodicio/tap/norma. The thread says v0.21. This page did not install it.
The readme's loop is longer. orient, enrich, branch, plan, implement, verify, review, document, close, deliver. The three stops are after enriching, after planning, and before delivery. Version 0.21.0. The agents named are Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and Cursor. A second install line is a curl of install.sh. The opportunity is the stamp, not another agent. A smaller product is one repo, the project's own checks, and a hook that will not commit without them.
Do not collapse the two step lists into one. The post says spec. The readme says enrich, and it adds branch and close. Do not invent a price. The repo does not print one.
The problem
The agent wrote it, tested it, and reviewed it. The word verified lives in the same chat.
Who would pay for this?
- Primary
- A developer whose agent already claims the work is verified.
- Secondary
- A lead who wants the refusal in git, not in a chat transcript.
- Early adopter
- One repo, one stack profile, the hook on.
How could it make money?
Possible models. Nothing here is a claim about what norma charges.
- MIT. No price on the readme.
- Do not add a seat fee until someone pays to keep the hook.
What would the MVP look like?
- One repository.
- The three stops, named the way the readme names them.
- A stamp from the project's real checks.
- A pre-commit hook that refuses a commit without that stamp.
- The two step lists, post and readme, left side by side.
How to validate the idea
- Ask five people who already use a coding agent to turn the hook on for a day.
- If they bypass it to commit, the stamp was not the product.
- Do not add a fifth agent until one unstamped commit is actually refused.
How to differentiate
- The reviewer is not the session that wrote the code.
- Git is the enforcer.
- Lowering the tests is a flag, not a pass.
- Do not become another agent. The gate is the job.
Why this could be interesting now
The thread and the readme agree on the stamp, the hook, and MIT. They do not agree on the step names. The opening is one commit a person can see refused.
Original product launch
This launch is inspiration and evidence that someone shipped, not a partnership. The idea above is our reading of the broader opportunity. norma did not write it.
- Product
- norma
- Source
- norma
- Film
- norma, a gate the coding agent cannot stamp itself
- Posted
- Oct 9, 2026 · 0:32
Product that inspired this idea
Juanca's post says he built norma: one way of working for AI-built projects, the same whichever agent is driving, enforced by git. Open source. The thread names the loop as orient, spec, plan, implement, verify, review, document, deliver, and three stops: the spec, the task list, and delivery. The readme's loop is orient, enrich, branch, plan, implement, verify, review, document, close, deliver, and the stops are after enriching, after planning, and before delivery. Review is a fresh session. The pre-commit hook refuses a commit without a fresh stamp. A skipped test, an eslint-disable, or fewer assertions is flagged for a person. POSIX sh, no dependencies, MIT, version 0.21.0. Install is brew install jcarlosrodicio/tap/norma. No price.
Posted by @JuancaRodicio. Watch the original launch. No separate product site is listed unless the post itself is the source.
- agents
- git
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